Search location by ZIP code

NEWS ARCHIVE

Bodies of 2 teens in 'Speed Freak Killers' well

Kimberly Billy went missing at age 19, and Joann Hobson was 16 when she disappeared in 1985.

SOURCE: San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department

Bodies of 2 teens in 'Speed Freak Killers' well

Share

Shares

Copy Link

{copyShortcut} to copy
Link copied!

Updated: 4:20 PM PDT Mar 30, 2012

FRENCH CAMP, Calif. —

Authorities released the identities of two Northern California teen girls whose remains were found inside an abandoned well used as a body dumping ground for two men known as the "Speed Freak Killers."

San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore on Friday identified 19-year-old Kimberly Billy, who went missing in 1984 at the age of 19, and 16-year-old Joann Hobson who disappeared in 1985.

Advertisement

A third body was also found and is awaiting identification, Moore said.

Investigators believe they were victims of Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog, who authorities say went on a methamphetamine-fueled killing spree in the 1980s and 90s that terrorized Northern California.

Shermantine is now on death row for four murders. He sent authorities on a massive search last month after he agreed to disclose burial locations in exchange for $33,000 from a bounty hunter.

Searchers combed a remote Calaveras County property once owned by Shermantine's family and excavated an abandoned well near the farming town of Linden.

At the Calaveras County property, they found the remains of Cyndi Vanderheiden, 25, who disappeared in 1998, and Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler, 16, who disappeared in 1985.

Shermantine was convicted of both murders in 2001, and Herzog reached a plea deal for voluntary manslaughter in Vanderheiden's death.

Shermantine blames Herzog for the killing spree. Shermantine told authorities that 10 or more bodies could have been stashed at the Linden well. Searchers dug up hundreds of bone fragments there, as well as purses, shoes, jewelry and other evidence.

Herzog was paroled in 2010 and committed suicide in January at his trailer in Lassen County, hours after being told that Shermantine was cooperating with authorities.